Dubai: Saudi-led warplanes launched new strikes in Yemen on Wednesday, hours after Riyadh announced a halt to the four-week air campaign, as Al Houthi militia seized a key loyalist base in the third city, Taiz.
The militia took advantage of the lull in air strikes to overrun the headquarters of the 35th Armoured Brigade in Taiz, loyal to exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which they had besieged for nearly a week. The Saudi-led coalition hit back with air strikes against rebel positions inside the captured camp and elsewhere in the city.
Also in southern Yemen, pro-Hadi militiamen fought against Al Houthis and their army allies loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and residents in the port of Aden reported tank shelling and automatic gunfire.
In an interview with MSNBC, US President Barack Obama called on Iran to help find a political solution in Yemen, accusing Tehran of contributing to the conflict there.
“We’ve indicated to the Iranians that they need to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem,” he said.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia declared Operation Storm of Resolve over and announced the start of a more limited military campaign aimed at preventing Al Houthi militiamen from operating.
Coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmad Al Assiri said the heavy air strikes would be scaled down, but did not confirm whether they would stop altogether.
Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to the UK said that coalition strikes had met their goals and could be used as a model for future joint Arab action.
“[Iran’s] interference has ignited instability, they have created havoc in our part of the world. Hence you have the coalition and a new foreign policy for all of us. We want an Arab world free of any outside interference,” Prince Mohammad Bin Nawaf told Reuters. Prince Mohammad emphasised that the dispute was about foreign policy differences, not religious sectarianism.
“It is a foreign policy problem. We have a problem with their (Iran’s) foreign policy,” he said.
